Dark underground black metal is the offering from Dutch band Kaeck, whose second album this is, six years on from their debut “Stormkult”. The occult, black magic and rituals interest them.
The style is old school. The riffage is deep and dark as if someone’s digging a trench. The drum sounds primitive like those early Darkthrone works. The vocalist rasps as if he’s coughing blood. The trench digging is interrupted a couple times for some restrained darkness. Thus is “Tegen een Scharlaken Horizon” (Against a Scarlet Horizon) “De Kewkeling” (The Nursery) which follows is more thunderous and violent before subjecting us to a deeper layer of filthy punishment. The riffage is not subtle. A haunting atmosphere threatens. Ominous tones accompany a barrage of words and howls. The thundery greyness of the riffs and the dark ambient atmosphere which floated in the background were highlights for me but “Het Zwarte Dictaat” doesn’t deviate much from this template. Slowing it down always makes it seem that Kaeck are dragging us through a thorn bush. The tempo does change but all the while we are being strangled by these stifling pitch-black riffs. The sound intensifies still further on the ferocious “De Kabal” as it slows down and expands the ubiquitous malevolence. The vocal delivery reminds me of Enthroned in some ways. Behind it is the dark riffage which on “Sektarische Magie” (Sectarian Magic) switches tempo up and down but always with the same oppressive effect. A sinister symphonic sound makes a brief appearance and creates a break as it does on other pieces, and to the thunderous tune the vocalist shrieks and cries insanely, to what end I couldn’t tell you. “Het Vurige Gemaal” (The Fiery Consort) is similar, plunging us into despair and ranging between a wall of aggression, pure darkness and ferocious evil. And that is about the sum of it. “Over Zwarte Vlakten” (On Black Plains) is no different, comprising one final round of unadulterated nastiness.
“Het Zwarte Dictaat” is as pure and frill-free a black metal work as there can be. Sparks don’t fly and it never rises to any sort of epic level, but its black energy is more of the sort to envelop us in noise and grind us down. It does the job.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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